Merkel Sent Parcel Bomb From Greece as Athens Suffers Blasts

German authorities intercepted a
parcel bomb sent to Chancellor Angela Merkel from Greece that
could have caused “not inconsiderable damage,” the government
said.

Merkel was in Belgium when the parcel was discovered
yesterday and no one was injured in the incident, her spokesman
Steffen Seibert said. The mailing “fits into the context” of
parcel bombs sent to foreign embassies in Athens this week,
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said late yesterday.

The device was contained in a parcel with a book addressed
to Merkel and listing the Greek Economy Ministry as the sender,
German officials said. It was sent from Greece by air cargo, de
Maiziere said.

Greek authorities found parcel bombs addressed to the
Belgian embassy in Greece and to French President Nicolas Sarkozy on two men arrested in Athens on Nov. 1. Small parcel
bombs exploded yesterday at the Swiss and Russian embassies in
Athens, and police said at least three more packages addressed
to foreign missions including the German embassy were disarmed.

The Passauer Neue Presse reported that Merkel called for
better global coordination of cargo checks, pointing to the
Berlin incident and the air-freight bombs discovered last week
originating in Yemen bound for synagogues in Chicago.

“Terrorism can only be fought if we marshal our forces
worldwide,” the newspaper cited her as saying in an interview
in today’s edition. “Everyone has the duty to be vigilant.”

‘Explosive’

The “small parcel,” mailed three days ago to the
Chancellery in central Berlin, was discovered at noon yesterday
during a routine mail inspection and disarmed by explosives
experts, Seibert told reporters.

“This was a functional explosive device,” de Maiziere
said. “We haven’t determined how dangerous the explosive was,
but it’s quite likely that if it was the same type of device as
the package bombs in Athens, it could have caused not
inconsiderable damage.”

Luxembourg said today it’s been the recipient of “a series
of” parcel bombs sent from Greece. Among the known addressees
are Luxembourg-based European Union institutions such as the
EU’s highest court, the country’s government press department
said in an e-mailed statement. Luxembourg is taking “adequate
measures” to protect recipients of parcels that contain
explosives which detonate on opening.

Yemen Alert

Germany’s Interior Ministry ordered government offices to
step up vigilance for suspicious parcels after the Merkel
package, de Maiziere said. Germany’s Federal Crime Bureau is
investigating the incident.

“There’s no evidence of any connection” to the air-cargo
bombs originating in Yemen that were discovered last week, he
said. “Although it did come on a cargo plane.”

Germany was already on alert after the bombs from Yemen
were discovered. One of those, concealed in a printer cartridge,
passed through Cologne-Bonn airport. Germany and the U.K. have
restricted package deliveries from Yemen and the U.K. prohibited
some larger printer cartridges from going on flights.

German remains a target for terrorism, Joerg Ziercke, head
of the Federal Crime Office, was cited as saying by Bild
newspaper.

“The range of targets may include buildings with a high
symbolic value,” the newspaper quoted him as saying in
interview excerpts e-mailed to media today. “We have reason for
concern, and even more so for precaution -- but not for panic.”

“There appears to be a new terrorist offensive,” Jan Techau, a research adviser at the NATO Defense College in Rome,
said in an interview. “For a long time things had been quieter
due to the high intensity of pursuit that extremists were
subject to.”